The News Journal, July 19, 2008

John Carney listens to Bob Dylan and Jimmy Buffett. Jack Markell flips his stereo to Neil Young and Fleetwood Mac.

And while surfing the Web, voters can read about the gubernatorial candidates’ favorite movies and TV shows or just poke fun at them — on Facebook.com that is.

Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor are using the popular social-networking Web site to connect with younger voters. Facebook, which allows users to create personal profiles and explore those of others, has become a popular tool among candidates across the country — Barack Obama has more than 1,158,000 supporters on his page and John McCain has connected with about 170,000 users.

“We created a Facebook page because there are a lot of people out there, specifically those millennials, younger potential voters,’ ” Republican lieutenant governor candidate Charlie Copeland said.

Also on the list of Facebook users are Copeland’s opponent, Democrat Matt Denn, and gubernatorial candidates Bill Lee and Mike Protack. Each is taking a different approach to using the Web to reach young voters and each page offers a different approach to political networking.

Scott McConnell, Carney’s spokesperson, said they created a Facebook profile to complement their Web site and other digital efforts.

“I don’t think its something you can ignore,” McConnell said. “We’ve had people come to our campaign asking to volunteer who have said ‘I went to John’s Web site to learn more about him,’ or ‘I really like him, I saw his Facebook page.’ ”

Markell created a profile when he ran for state treasurer in 2006 and has found the Web site a useful tool for connecting with young voters, spokesman Joe Rogalsky said.

“The Facebook group is a recruitment tool to young people who are eligible to vote and also who want to get involved,” Rogalsky said.

Denn has mastered some of the more technical features of Facebook that are popular among the younger users that he is targeting, including adding family photo albums and tributes to Obama and his favorite store, Wawa.

“We have a blog, and I had put a blog post up about how I’m Wawa’s No.1 customer,” Denn said of his frequent stops for coffee while campaigning. “One of the kids on my campaign told me there was a Wawa page.”

Most candidates said they have no concern about sharing too much personal information on their sites, including Denn, who lists controversial musician Amy Winehouse as one of his favorites, an addition he made before her recent public scrutiny.

“I was sad that Amy Winehouse got in all that trouble when it happened, and now I’m even more sad that she’s on my Facebook page,” Denn said.

On Friday afternoon, Copeland expanded his profile from a simple photo and link to his Web site to include his favorite leisure activitiessuch as movie “Cinema Paradiso” that he said likely won’t have a negative impact.

“It’s one more method to reach out to constituents and potential voters and let them know a little about you,” he said.

In addition to profile pages where voters can learn about the candidates, supporters have started groups to join including “Team Carney” and “Jacklings.”

Unlike campaign-run Web sites and blogs, candidates can’t solicit donations on Facebook. But they can share their goals and let users post questions on their virtual “walls.”

Protack said Facebook is just one tool in an arsenal of options his campaign is using to contact young voters. He is also building a MySpace.com page.

Jason O’Neill created Protack’s Facebook support group — which currently includes about five members — as a way for people to connect with the candidate online.

“We saw presidential candidates using it so we rolled one out,” O’Neill said.

While Protack’s page was created by a campaign staffer, members from Lee’s campaign learned about his group after a non-affiliated supporter started it. The “Change Begins Today with Lee-Copeland” group, which posts links to articles about the Republican duo, was started by a voter and now includes about 40 members.

Brud Lee, Bill Lee’s son and campaign spokesman, said they are joining the group as an effort to support the full ticket, not the candidates separately.

The candidates are also seeing support growing in other online networks. Users can “follow” Carney on the miniblog site Twitter.com and a 15-year-old user posted a video blog on YouTube.com supporting Markell.

“Its unfortunate he won’t be 18 by September,” Rogalsky said of the video maker. “It’s a young guy who’s very passionate about Jack, and its great to see young kids involved in the process.”

Numbers are an important factor in the Facebook world that includes more than 80 million active users as groups and members supporting a variety of causes often compete to have the largest membership numbers.

Of the gubernatorial candidates, Markell’s group has 327 members, Carney has 76, Lee about 40 and Protack with the smallest virtual following at five.

“I think its an indication of Jack’s support of how well his message is being received,” Rogalsky said.

McConnell said while Carney’s numbers might seem lower, the campaign is hearing a large response from people claiming to discover the candidate through the site.

And Denn, who has 278 friends on Facebook, compared with his opponent Copeland’s 45, thinks the numbers mean very little.

“I’m sure that Charlie is a lovely guy and has many non-virtual friends,” Denn said.